ICEBlock blocked. Under pressure from President Trump’s Justice Department, Apple has yanked from its App Store applications people have been using to report the actions of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers.
■ Joshua Aaron, creator of the most prominent of those, ICEBlock—which has been downloaded more than a million times—tells CNN: “This is protected speech under the First Amendment. … We are determined to fight this with everything we have.”
■ At the Department of Homeland Security’s request, the FAA’s established unprecedented drone restrictions over the whole Chicago area—a move the American Civil Liberties Union sees as an attempt to limit the public and media’s ability to learn what’s going on …
■ … and that the Freedom of the Press Foundation sees as DHS “taking their war on civilians—and especially on journalists—to the sky.”
■ Immigration advocates have launched their own database to track arrests and deportations in the area.
■ After firing dozens of existing immigration judges, the administration’s tapped National Guard and Army Reserve lawyers as temporary replacements.
‘F*** them kids.’ Fresh details are emerging in ICE agents’ early-Tuesday raid on a Chicago apartment building—where children were pulled out of bed …
■ … and dragged to U-Hauls.
■ At least four kids were reportedly U.S. citizens.
■ The Daily Beast: “ICE Barbie Ordered Midnight Raid From the Sky.”
■ Chalkbeat: Elected officials and union leaders are calling on the community to help protect immigrant kids and their families.
■ Block Club: Veterans are condemning ICE’s “mob tactics” at its Broadview detention center: “Our democracy is being crushed.”
■ The Guardian’s Oliver Laughland recounts “My travels through Chicago: Tear gas, resistance and Trump’s big immigration crackdown.”
‘It’s time she be held accountable.’ Gov. Pritzker says Homeland Security chief Kristi Noem “should no longer be able to step foot” in Illinois without taking journalists’ questions.
■ Press Watch columnist Dan Froomkin prescribes new rules for reporters covering Trump.
■ CBS News reportedly has a new editor-in-chief: Conservative editor and writer Bari Weiss.
Out-of-office politics. Some federal employees say their voicemail messages have been altered in the federal shutdown to blame Democrats.
■ In what The American Prospect dubs the “Look What You Made Me Do” phase of the shutdown, the Republican administration has cut federal funding for blue-state energy programs—as red states get to keep theirs.
■ Chicago’s out at least $2.1 billion in transit funding …
■ … including cash for the Red Line Extension and the Red and Purple Modernization projects.
■ Here’s Sen. Tammy Duckworth’s full list of Illinois programs affected.
■ Columnist Christopher Armitage suggests blue states fight back by refusing to send cash to Washington: “They’re … the ones bankrolling the entire federal system.”
■ Columnist Charlotte Clymer: “Remarkably, Democrats are winning the shutdown debate.”
■ Former Labor Secretary Robert Reich says air traffic controllers are key to ending the shutdown.
Cops gone wrong. The Sun-Times: Two officers accused of Paycheck Protection Program fraud and domestic violence are the sons of two former Chicago police superintendents.
■ The chief of Chicago’s police union is out—at least temporarily—at the Illinois Fraternal Order of Police board as investigations probe charges of financial misconduct.
Ethics cases, begone. Chicago Treasurer Melissa Conyears-Ervin will pay a $30,000 fine to settle charges that she diverted taxpayer cash for personal and political things and improperly fired whistleblowers.
■ A Tribune editorial: Illinois school superintendents are cashing in as students fall behind.
‘Go 8 for 8 and award yourself a tiny gold chimp.’ With a nod to the late Jane Goodall, The Conversation’s quizmaster, past Jeopardy! Tournament of Champions winner Fritz Holznagel, lays down a fresh news quiz.
■ Your Chicago Public Square columnist racked up another disappointing 6/8—as the image above illustrates, flubbing Qs 1 and 6.
■ Up for more? Try Justin Kaufmann’s Axios quiz about Chicago-area shopping malls (8/10 right for Square) …
■ … or the latest from City Cast (4/5 correct here).
Weekly Dingus. Lyz Lenz’s pick: “Dunning-Kruger poster boy Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.”
■ Wonkette’s Evan Hurst bestows the official “Hegseth Microdick” award on FBI Director Kash Patel.
‘From a fitness standpoint, it is best to just leave the newspapers on the ground, in their natural state.’ Embracing Trump’s physical fitness challenge, Pulitzer-winning columnist Dave Barry comes up short.
Saturday Night Live’s back. LateNighter lists five things to watch as the show returns—with an overhauled cast and writing staff and a history-making return host.
■ Let the Tribune’s Chris Borrelli (gift link, possible because readers like you have pitched in to underwrite the cost of creating Square) introduce you to the photographers who for half a century have shot those SNL host photos that lead into the show’s commercial breaks.
■ Here’s a video montage of those shots from the show’s first 50 years.
■ Jon Stewart broke into Jimmy Kimmel’s monologue last night.
■ Onstage at Saudi Arabia’s comedy festival, Dave Chappelle complained, “It’s easier to talk here than it is in America.”
■ Comedian—and Columbia College Chicago alumnus—W. Kamau Bell: “$1.6 million wouldn’t be enough for me to go to Saudi Arabia and take the government’s money. And I could use that money. These kids won’t stop eating.”
■ USA Today’s Chicago-based columnist Rex Huppke explains why Taylor Swift’s new album, “which I have not listened to because I’m wokeness-intolerant, is deeply anti-American and something you should feel enraged about for at least the next 10 weeks.”
Feeling unmoist? September was one of Chicago’s driest months in 150 years.
Baseball news. The Cubs are headed to the National League Division Series.
Thanks. Chris Koenig made this edition better.